updated 08:40 am EDT, Wed April 14, 2010

Blame placed on US demand

Citing "surprisingly strong US demand," Apple has officially delayed the international launch of the iPad. The device will, as a result, only go on sale in foreign countries towards the end of May, instead of late April as planned. Pre-orders however should open up on May 10th, at which time Apple says it will also reveal pricing in local currencies.

In detail the company claims that it shipped over 500,000 US iPads in the space of a week, and that demand is so high it will probably "exceed our supply over the next several weeks as more people see and touch an iPad." The iPad 3G, due towards the end of April, has also allegedly registered a "large number" of pre-orders, Apple says.

Although stock of the iPad initially appeared to hold out in the first few days after launch, it was shortly announced that all Best Buy stores had temporarily sold out. Apple Stores have been experiencing periodic sellouts, although in some cases only in certain capacities. It's unclear how sales may be progressing through smaller resellers, although quantities are likely to be tiny given Apple's treatment of the reseller market. Companies were forbidden from doing any advance marketing of the tablet, and were given a fraction of the units allocated to Apple Stores and Best Buy.

iPad a failure

Yeah right!

What's stopping them announcing pricing now and delaying shipping? Unless this has more to do with an undesirably strong dollar against the Euro at the moment. This is arbitrage and has nothing to do with availability. Apple want to s**** their overseas customers as much as they can. Remember, in the last quarter, overseas sales by volume decreased 8% but profits increased by 8% so that's a 16% reaming factor. Ouch. My poor bottie! Apple want to set the prices in relation to a weaker dollar.